The Set of Our Sails
CLAC National Convention state of the union address, Lake Louise, Alberta, December 8, 2023
By Wayne Prins, Executive Director
DELEGATES, MEMBERS OF THE NATIONAL BOARD, colleagues, guests, it’s my honour and privilege to address you this evening on this special occasion of our National Convention. I’m here to share some reflections on the state of our union.
We are 351 staff members working in 14 member centres—six in Ontario, one in Manitoba, one in Saskatchewan, three in Alberta, and three in BC. We serve just over 67,000 members at last count in September—that’s our six-month number. On any given day, about 51,000 CLAC members report to work.
Our members work for over 700 employers across the country, and we bargain and administer collective agreements for all of them. About 1,600 stewards help serve our members every day—we couldn’t do what we do without their tireless help!
We manage over $1.7 billion in retirement savings for our members, and we provide comprehensive health and welfare benefits to over 30,000 members and their families. We’re on pace to provide training to over 70,000 individual learners this year, and our ADCM [alcohol and drug case management] Team will provide case management and support to about 700 members this year.
Our communications and marketing reach millions of Canadians every year. We’ve become reliable partners with government in delivering publicly funded programs related to workforce development and training, with over $20 million dollars in public funds currently under our management for service delivery.
We meet regularly with government officials at all levels, including a lengthy conversation I had with the premier of Alberta two weeks ago, and a CLAC delegation who met with the federal minister of labour and the head of policy to the prime minister in Ottawa just last week. Our ability and opportunity to speak to the highest offices in the country continues to grow, and it’s our ambition to keep this momentum going so we can advance the interests of our members with greater effect and advocate for fair and balanced public policy.
THESE ARE IMPRESSIVE STATS, and they’re evidence of a strong, mature, and thriving union. But these stats are not the only measure of the state of our union. In fact, they’re not even the most important measure.
A more important measure is asking ourselves, are we holding true to our character? Are we faithful to our purpose? Do our values guide us, even through the toughest challenges?
Let’s explore these questions. If you open our website, one of the first things you’ll see is a statement that says, “We think differently than other unions.”
What does it mean that we “think differently”?
Well, for 72 years we have said boldly, consistently, and without apology that cooperation, mutual respect, treating people fairly, and, above all, honouring the God-given dignity of every person in the workplace is a better way of conducting labour relations. These are the “thoughts” that underpin everything we do. They are our starting point. And this is important because the way we think determines the way we behave.
ABOUT SEVEN YEARS AGO, we successfully organized the workers at the Maple Leaf Poultry Plant in Edmonton. We raided them from the UFCW [United Food and Commercial Workers union], which had been “representing” them poorly for years.
Once we became their union, we learned their industry, we trained new stewards, we negotiated a good agreement, and we served the members to the very best of our ability. I visited the plant last summer, and I met many of our members. It was clear to me that we were doing a very good job there.
Well, the UFCW was never happy with us representing a large bargaining unit in what they consider their sector, and they were determined to raid it back. They raided us several years ago, and our members rejected them.
A few months ago, they were back with an even larger army of organizers from across the country and with the help of other traditional unions from the Edmonton area. They also came with bigger promises—promises they knew they couldn’t keep—and bigger allegations against CLAC—allegations that were not truthful.
Despite an incredible defense campaign by our staff and key supporters, when the ballots were counted, the UFCW was victorious, winning by a thin margin. We were devastated, and so was nearly half the workforce.
Now, you’re wondering why I’m starting with a story of a loss. I’m doing this because often your true character comes to the surface in such moments.
The UFCW celebrated their victory loudly and publicly on social media. But they weren’t celebrating a victory for the workers. They weren’t celebrating that these workers would experience a better workplace or better working conditions. They were only celebrating a victory over CLAC.
The next day, their organizers left town to return to their home provinces, and all the promises they had made in the previous weeks left town with them. In fact, the members didn’t hear from the UFCW for nearly three weeks after the vote, and today, months later, nothing has been accomplished. The members are frustrated, angry, and many of the workers miss us.
Through it all, we held our heads high, we conducted ourselves with class and restraint. We didn’t reciprocate their rhetoric.
We learned what we could from the experience, we lamented the loss along with our supporters, and we set our sights on gaining them back in due course. In short, we held true to our character, even in the face of defeat.
A COUPLE OF MONTHS AGO, I had the opportunity to visit our members at the Albright Manor long term care facility in Beamsville, Ontario. There are some similarities in the story of Albright and the story of Maple Leaf, except that at Albright we were the union that had represented them for 20 years, and it was Unifor that came along and raided them from us. That was about four years ago. There, too, the raiding union made promises they couldn’t keep, and in time the membership came to see that their new union simply didn’t serve them nearly as well as we did.
Exactly a year ago, we successfully raided them back with a vote of 135 to 12 in favour of CLAC—an incredible show of support. And as I walked through the halls of Albright Manor, meeting many of our members and handing out new collective agreement booklets, I was overwhelmed by the positive spirit of the members, like they had returned home from an unhappy place. And that positivity fills the entire facility. The residents feel it, the management team feels it, even visitors can feel it.
The story of Albright Manor is a beautiful example of CLAC being faithful to our purpose.
OVER THE PAST TWO DAYS, you’ve heard about our recent strike in Manitoba. I spent a day visiting the EAs [educational assistants] on the picket line, and at noon on the day of my visit, we had a rally in a park with both the morning and afternoon shifts. As you’ve already heard, the stories that emerged from the experiences of the EAs through the course of the strike were truly incredible.
When the strike came to an end and the EAs returned to work, I spent some time reflecting on the journey we had all come through. I think many of us spent time reflecting on it! I am incredibly proud of our staff, Geoff [Dueck Thiessen, regional director] and Heidi [Martens, representative] in particular.
I’m proud of the leaders in the bargaining unit, the stewards, and especially the bargaining committee members. I’m proud of the 300 EAs, who broke through all kinds of barriers to demand respect and fair wages from their employer. And I’m incredibly proud that in this moment of great conflict—a strike is really a remarkable act of asserting the power granted to a union and its members—that we remained positive, decent, respectful, and dignified. Instead of resorting to anger and resentment, which the EAs could easily have done, they danced to music and cheerfully waved to passing traffic.
There was plenty of media coverage and public attention, and when the camera and mic were in our face, we didn’t slag the employer or exaggerate our struggle. We spoke the truth graciously and carefully, making specific effort to preserve a relationship with the employer even as we exerted our collective force. We showed that even a strike can be done differently.
I’M ALSO REMINDED OF OUR WORK on the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project. Our members built about 70 percent of the $31 billion project—an incredible project for the entire country.
One of the sections of the project we’ve been working on is the Westridge Terminal and Tank Farm near Vancouver, where the pipeline meets the ocean. We’ve nearly completed this work, and the workforce is winding down.
Now imagine having to negotiate a new collective agreement for the project at peak workforce—about 1,600 members on site at the time—at peak inflation, at peak labour shortage in the pipeline sector, and in the aftermath of COVID. These were extraordinarily difficult conditions for bargaining.
When I toured the project last fall, I observed the strength of the relationships that had been developed by our representatives and stewards with our members, with supervision, and with the employer. There was such a good feeling on the project. The members felt engaged and respected. And thanks to this incredible work by our team of staff and stewards, a new agreement was negotiated and was ratified by the membership with over 90 percent support! Just remarkable.
Both of these situations came with enormously difficult challenges, and in the heat of these moments, our values guided our actions, our values guided our decisions, and our values led us to good outcomes.
AS I SHARE THESE STORIES, what comes to mind is something I’ve said many times before: cooperative labour relations, the work we do, is harder than conventional, adversarial labour relations.
It’s easier to win votes when you make promises you can’t keep and when you lie about your opponent.
It’s easier to vilify the employer than to show them respect, and work hard to balance each other’s interests.
It’s easier to get angry and yell than to extend grace and understanding in the moment of conflict.
The work we’ve committed ourselves to, the work that flows from our values, is difficult. It can feel like sailing into the wind.
Isn’t it remarkable that a sailboat can sail into the wind? As poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox wrote, “It’s the set of the sail, not the force of the gale, that determines where we go.”
It’s the set of the sail, not the force of the gale, that determines where we go.
I see many unions and institutions and organizations—and individuals for that matter—being pushed around by the force of the gale, whichever way it might be blowing.
But our values are our sails. And the set of our sails is firm; they guide us, into the wind or not.
And ultimately, our work is so rewarding. Just take a look around this room, consider the reports we’ve heard, the stories we tell, the impact we’re having on the lives of so many people. This is good. This is reason for hope.
We’ve been talking about trust this week. The values we cling to are the building blocks of trust, and they are our foundation.
BEFORE I WRAP UP, I’d like to share just a few more thoughts about what we can expect in the coming years. I’ve shared a few stories tonight from a variety of sectors, but it’s notable that two-thirds of our members work in construction or a related industry.
The 10-year outlook for construction activity is astounding. Canada is bringing over 500,000 people into our country every year, all of whom need a place to live, schools to attend, hospitals to visit, and roads to drive on. And we already have a severe housing shortage, our infrastructure is aging and insufficient, we’re in the midst of an energy transition, we need to capture carbon, we need to mine more minerals, we need to produce more materials, more goods, and more food.
All this construction activity will create even more severe shortages for skilled workers.
We’re also experiencing labour shortages in the healthcare sector, service sector, manufacturing, transportation. We basically have a shortage of labour in every sector of the economy, and this is set to get worse in the coming years.
We’ve learned through past experience that severe labour shortages create difficult conditions for labour relations. We need to be ready for this.
Meanwhile, we continue to face affordability and cost-of-living issues, there are worrisome economic and geopolitical dynamics, and there are too many people experiencing homelessness, addiction, and mental health issues. These are important issues we’ll be working on together in the years to come.
We have an exciting strategic plan, a clear vision, and we have incredible staff, stewards, and members who can take up these challenges with enthusiasm and determination.
So, I say with confidence, and with an abundance of gratitude, the state of our union is very good. Our success is proof that our model of labour relations works, and the potential that lies before us is vast.
I view this potential not just as an opportunity, but as a responsibility—the vision for CLAC was set before anyone in this room was involved, and it will outlive us all. We are just looking after this beautiful union for a time, and it’s our responsibility to make the most of it, in service to each other, in service to our members, in service to our country, and in service to God.
Thank you all for your dedication and commitment to CLAC. Let’s keep doing this work together. Let’s keep having fun along the way. May God continue to bless the work of our hands, and may God bless you all.